Editorials

Push the restart button

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-09 07:53

Editor's note: The world doesn't hold an optimistic attitude towards the agreement between the US and Russia, although they showed their sincerity in carrying out it in the future. The international community should urge them to take more actions.

As expected, the United States and Russia, two nuclear superpowers in the world, signed an agreement in the Czech capital of Prague on Thursday to cut their nuclear arsenals. In what has been hailed as a comprehensive nuclear disarmament pact, the two countries pledged to cut their nuclear arms by 30 percent.

This is a significant step internationally to prevent nuclear proliferation and push nuclear disarmament. The fact that the new agreement is binding indicates the US and Russia want to demonstrate their sincerity in carrying out the agreement to the letter in front of the international community.

Nonetheless, the new treaty should not leave peace-loving people around the world too optimistic about global nuclear security. For one thing, it's too early to say if the treaty will be carried out to the fullest.

Since the 1980s, the US and Russia (and its predecessor, the former Soviet Union) have signed several treaties on strategic disarmament. The START II treaty signed in 1993 was never put into effect despite being ratified.

Even if the new treaty is eventually put into effect, the two countries still have more than 90 percent of the world's total nuclear storage.

Global nuclear disarmament hinges on whether the US and Russia can make even bigger strides to reduce their arsenals. The international community should urge the two to take even greater steps toward complete disarmament so that a world free of the threat of nuclear weapons will not be just a dream.

(China Daily 04/09/2010 page8)